Baw Meh dreams of a safer future for her grandchildren
Baw Meh, 78 years old: “I got married very young. My parents arranged it. We never saw each other before the wedding. He said, you’re very slim, and I said, you’re handsome and manly. We laughed but after those first words we were shy to walk together. We had good...
Finally, a safe place to be gay
Walking down the street while holding hands with his boyfriend could have gotten Subhi Nahas tortured and killed in his hometown of Idlib, Syria, where he says hardline militias target gay men and execute them. That is why 28-year-old Nahas fled the country in...
A Syrian family starts over in Canada
Wearing earplugs and protective gloves, Kevork Eleyjian hauls glued-wood veneers to a large machine on a noisy factory floor, shaping thin composite sheets into curved seats. The 28-year-old is among 15 Syrian refugees starting their lives over with jobs at the...
The kindness of strangers
Mohammad and Sahar sat across the aisle from one another, each with a son and daughter to care for during the 13-hour flight. Refugees from Syria, they had never been on a plane before. This life-changing journey would take them on four in as many days. Behind them...
Calais – A way out
It is a cold and rainy day in Calais, the port city in northern France. For some 4,000 refugees and migrants living here in the makeshift camp known as “the Jungle.” Conditions are growing worse by the hour. As I walk down the muddy path which serves as the main...
Life begins as one in a million
Samar Alzayadi’s age is counted in hours. Yet she’s endured more than most people will in a lifetime. She also has the dubious distinction to have been born the millionth refugee or migrant to arrive in Europe by sea in 2015. Lying in her hospital bed, Ahlam, Samar’s...
The Central African Republic: 1 in 5 forced to flee
Making a world of difference: Responding wherever needed In 2015, inter-communal fighting continued to drive hundreds of thousands of people to seek refuge in neighbouring Cameroon, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Congo. Nearly 900,000...
Europe crisis: +850,000 arrivals by sea as of November 2015
Making a world of difference: responding wherever needed Staggering numbers of refugees and migrants have risked their lives crossing the Mediterranean and thousands continue to do so every day, desperate to reach safety in Europe. Over half of them are Syrians,...